What Is BattlEye? How the BattlEye Anti-Cheat Works

BattlEye is one of the oldest anti-cheats still in use, and one of the most common in extraction and survival games. If you play Escape From Tarkov, DayZ or PUBG on PC, it is running every time you load in.

Where BattlEye came from

BattlEye was founded by Bastian Suter in 2004 and began as a third-party anti-cheat for Battlefield Vietnam, used by competitive leagues. A version for Battlefield 2 followed in 2005, and over the next few years developers started building it directly into their games. It is now made by BattlEye Innovations, based in Germany, and protects a long list of shooters, among them PUBG: Battlegrounds, Arma 3, DayZ, Rainbow Six Siege and Escape From Tarkov.

How BattlEye works

It runs with the game

When you launch a BattlEye game, the BattlEye service starts alongside it. If the service cannot start, the game either refuses to launch or cannot join servers, which is why BattlEye errors usually appear right at launch.

It runs at kernel level

BattlEye runs a kernel-level driver while the game is open. That gives it a view of the whole system: other programs, loaded drivers and anything trying to read or change the game’s memory. The page on kernel-level anti-cheat explains what that level of access means.

It updates without a game patch

BattlEye can update its detection logic on its own schedule, without the game itself being patched. That is part of why a cheat can stop being safe on a day when nothing in the game has changed.

It works with the game’s own systems

Like every anti-cheat, BattlEye is one layer. In Escape From Tarkov, player reports add another layer. PUBG gives the player you kill a death cam, killer spectate and a full replay, with a report key built in. DayZ servers are run by communities as well as officially, and community admins keep an eye on their own servers. The full picture is in how anti-cheat detects cheats.

Common BattlEye problems

Verifying or repairing the game files is the fix for most of these, because it reinstalls the BattlEye service along with the game.

Bans

A BattlEye cheating ban is normally permanent for the game it was issued in, and bans can arrive later rather than straight away, in the ban waves most anti-cheats use. Because BattlEye runs in many games, a detection in one game does not automatically mean a ban in another, but the same software would be detected wherever it ran.

BattlEye in the games we cover

Escape From Tarkov. BattlEye protects Tarkov on both the BSG Launcher and the Steam release that arrived with 1.0 on 15 November 2025, in PvP, in PvE and on Kord Breach seasonal characters. PvE raids have no other humans unless you bring them, but your PvE profile sits on the same Battlestate account as your PvP one, so a ban lands on that one account either way.

DayZ. BattlEye runs on official and community servers alike, and official servers run their own server-side checks on top. Community servers add something no scan can: admins who watch their own players and can remove anyone they like.

PUBG: Battlegrounds. BattlEye runs on the Steam version. PUBG also gives the player you kill a death cam, killer spectate and a full replay with a free camera, so how you play is on record as well as what you run.

Rainbow Six Siege. BattlEye protects Siege on Steam and Ubisoft Connect. Our Siege build is in development.

What BattlEye looks for

BattlEye follows the same layered approach as other modern anti-cheats:

• known cheats and tools, matched by signature
• code inside the game that the game did not load
• other programs and drivers reaching into the game’s memory
• a system state it cannot trust, such as test signing or debugging switched on

It also blocks known memory editors and debuggers from running beside the game, which is why some legitimate tools trigger a kick.

BattlEye and Elocarry builds

Each Elocarry build for a BattlEye game is written for BattlEye specifically, polymorphic so its signature changes on every launch, and rebuilt when the game or BattlEye updates. DayZ also has official and community servers with different rules, which the DayZ support guides cover. Check live status on the status page before you load in. No method is ever guaranteed.

The games we cover that run BattlEye are listed below, each with its Wiki hub.